Mr Jones, who has mostly kept quiet about the fight for his old constituency, issued a one-word statement on Twitter after Mr Maloney conceded: “Yes”. Mr. Maloney survived an initial challenge but was trying to adjust to the contours of a new district. And as the general election race progressed this fall, Mr. Maloney’s fortunes appeared to falter, leading the very committee he leads to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into campaign ads in recent weeks. It didn’t work, as Mr. Lawler rode a wave of discontent and the party’s traditional powerhouse out of the White House to a major victory. The 17th District race was one of three in the Hudson Valley region considered competitive, despite New York being a deeply liberal state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than two to one. Republican congressional leaders in New York, including Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking Republican in the House, are pushing the state party to the right, embracing some of former President Donald J. Trump’s policies and rhetoric. Mr. Lawler ran a somewhat more moderate campaign — distancing himself from the unrest on Capitol Hill, for example, and dismissing false conspiracy theories about a Trump victory in 2020 — apparently aimed at wooing independents and conservative Democrats. Both candidates also tried to court the Orthodox Jewish community in the newly redrawn district, including Rockland County, home to several large Hasidic communities. Mr. Lawler is a longtime Republican political operative who previously worked for Rob Astorino, the former Westchester County Executive. He now runs his own political consulting firm, which worked on his congressional campaign. He also worked as a lobbyist on behalf of an interest group promoting a new natural gas pipeline in New York.
